Tips to Customize iOS Home Screen
1. Change Wallpaper
The wallpaper you choose will determine how your final home screen will look like. It should be consistent with the aesthetics of other items such as app icons, widgets, and similar items. Go to Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper to change your wallpaper. You can set a Dynamic or Live wallpaper, or you can use an Apple-provided still image. You can even set your own image as wallpaper by selecting it from the list of available albums. Learn how to change your iPhone’s wallpaper automatically. If you don’t like Apple’s collection o3f live wallpapers, check out the best live wallpaper apps to get more variety. By the way, did you know you can set a video wallpaper on the lock screen too?
2. Hide or Reorder Pages
Without deleting apps, you can easily remove extra or unnecessary pages from your home screen. This is useful if you want to declutter your home screen and only keep the pages you need. To remove home screen pages, touch and hold any empty space on iPhone’s home screen until the icons start shaking. Tap on the dots at the bottom to enter the customization mode. Tap on the checkmark icon under a page to hide it. To exit the customization mode, tap anywhere else. If, however, you want to delete the page altogether, tap on the remove (-) icon on the page. Doing so will remove the page from the list of pages. However, the apps on the page will not be uninstalled. You can still access them from the App Library. If you want to change the order of pages, touch and hold a page and move it to the desired position.
3. Change Home Screen Pages Using Focus Mode
Apple introduced Focus modes with iOS 15, which are a set of profiles that allow you to silence calls and alerts on your iPhone. The interesting aspect of Focus modes is that you can display different home screen pages depending on which Focus mode is active. For example, in Reading Focus mode, you can keep only the book apps on the home screen, and in Fitness profile, you can select a page that displays only the health-related apps and widgets. The rest of the pages will remain hidden. To do so, go to Settings > Focus > [Desired profile] > Home screen. Enable the toggle next to Custom Pages and select the pages to display. The only thing you need to remember is to set up the respective pages ahead of time; otherwise, they will not appear in the list. Check out other cool tips related to Focus mode on iPhone.
4. Keep Home Screen Clean
Earlier, all the installed apps would show up on the iPhone’s home screen. Removing any app would uninstall it. With iOS 14 onwards, removing apps from the home screen will not uninstall them. You can still view them in the App Library that can be accessed by swiping left from the last home screen page. With this feature, you can keep only the important apps or remove all of them to get a clean home screen. To remove an app from the home screen, touch and hold the app icon. Select Remove app followed by Remove from home screen. Or, choose Delete app to uninstall it completely. Tip: To delete multiple apps, touch and hold any app icon. When the icons start to shake, go to the App Library and press the X icon on the apps that you want to uninstall.
5. Keep Apps in App Library Only
The above tip will remove the existing apps from home screen. To prevent new apps from being added to the home screen, go to Settings > Home screen. Select App Library Only under the Newly downloaded apps. By doing so, any newly installed app will only appear in App Library. You will need to manually add it to the home screen. If, however, you decide to keep apps on the home screen, the following tips to arrange them will come in handy.
6. Color Code Apps
Keeping apps according to their color is one of the coolest ways to arrange them on the home screen. For example, all blue apps will be on one home screen, and all red apps will be on another, and so on. This concept can also be applied to folders. Touch and hold the app icon to move it to a different page or to the same page.
7. Define Folder Purpose
Rather than naming the folder after categories such as music, productivity, and so on, define the purpose of the apps contained within it or what they help you with. For example, instead of calling it a Music folder, call it a Listen folder. Similarly, use verbs like watch, play, write, listen, navigate, photograph, read, share, shop, talk, and so on to name folders. To rename a folder, touch and hold the folder. Select Rename from the menu. Tap on the folder name and enter the new name.
8. Use Emoji Names
Similarly, if you like emojis, use them as folder names. Go with emojis that you can easily identify with.
9.Use Widgets
iOS 14 gave birth to the concept of widgets on the iPhone’s home screen. Now you can quickly access important information from various apps without opening the app. To add widgets, press any empty space on the home screen and tap on the add (+) icon at the top. Tap on the widget to preview it. Swipe through the available list to select the right size of the widget. Finally, tap on Add widget. Here are some more useful tips for widgets on iPhone.
Touch and hold a widget and select Edit widget to customize the widget properties.Hold the widget and drag it around to a different position on the home screen.Use Smart stack widget available under the list of widgets. This widget learns your behavior over time to automatically show relevant information throughout the day.If you aren’t satisfied with the native widget list, check out our exhaustive list of third-party widget apps.Do you enjoy keeping track of the weather? Take a look at the best weather widgets.Finally, create your own widgets to match the aesthetics of app icons and wallpaper using apps like Widgetsmith, Widget Wizard, and Color Widgets.
Tip: Find out how to use widgets in iPadOS 15.
10. Change App Icons
Apple does not provide a simple method for changing app icons. However, this does not rule out the possibility entirely. To change the icon of any app on your iPhone, you must use the Apple Shortcuts app. Check out our detailed tutorial on how to change app icons on iPhone. It also includes more than ten icon packs. You can also use websites like iskin.tooliphone.net, Flaticon, and icons8 to get free custom app icons. Similarly, apps like App Icon Changer will also come in handy. Tips: Badges do not show up on the app icons created using this tip. If you want to see the badges, you should add the original app icons on a separate screen.
11. Reset Home Screen
If you mess up with the layout of your home screen and want to return to the default view, you can easily do so by resetting your home screen. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset home screen layout to do so. You will have to start setting up the home screen from scratch.
Be Patient
It’s going to take a lot of time to personalize the iPhone if you want to go all aesthetic. Take inspiration from home screen ideas on Pinterest or other websites to get the look that you want. Have the patience to get the desired result. Check out more tips to customize iPhone’s home screen.
